Always wanted to find out the interesting details behind a painting? This presentation explores the work 'Liberty Leading The People' from Eugène Delacroix.

1. HOW TO
READ
WORLD
HISTORY
IN ART
[PART 1]

2. In a period of just
three days – from
27 to 29 July 1830 –
Charles X’s
monarchy
collapsed in Paris,
overturned by a
popular uprising
and the upper
middle class’s
desire for a more
liberal regime.
1830TheJulyRevolution EUGÈNE DELACROIX, 28 July: Liberty
Leading the People [1830]

3. The allegory of Liberty has the
strength of Michelangelo's
figures
Exposed breast to make the
figure more heroic. Derived from
classical nudes
Phrygian cap (the cap of liberty)
brings this symbolic figure into
the realm of current reality
Her force represents a proud woman of the public

4. The work has a pyramidal
composition, with the
personification of Liberty at
the peak, and dead bodies at
the base

5. The artist intended to represent
all the social groups that
participated in the revolution
Craftsman, not a bourgeois, as
can be seen from the long
pants and flannel belt (believed
by some to be a self­portrait)
Tradesman with sabre
Unskilled Labourer

6. This youth is one of the most
famous figures in the painting.
Student’s beret
Battle cry on his lips
Pistols in hand
Ammunition pouch that is too big for him
Smoke of cannon fire
Silhouette of Notre­Dame in Paris

7. Liberty Leading the People is a grand ‘manifesto’ that celebrates the people of
Paris and their revolutionary drive.
When it was exhibited at the Salon of 1831, its realism and the figures’ distance
from academic models caused a scandal. To some critics, the woman looked
like a prostitute and the insurgents like common criminals. Despite this, the
canvas was purchased by the state, but by 1833 it was hidden from public view.
Only in 1863 (the year of Delacroix’s death) was it finally put on display in the
Louvre.

8. READ MORE
in our free LITE - book
and zoom in on every painting